I like to use TrainingPeaks™ platform to create training plans, capture training data and gain valuable insight for my athletes. It’s a well established training platform that has widespread usage amongst pros and amateurs for good reason. I personally have been using TrainingPeaks™ for 20 years.
There is a lot of debate on how many training zones to use and what method is most appropriate to determine which zone you are in but there is no perfect approach that works for everyone. It largely depends on the coaches and athletes needs as well as the tools they have at their disposal.
My preference is to use a 5 zone model as this appears to be a good compromise for most athletes of simplicity with enough precision to ensure you are training at the appropriate intensity and maximizing the effectiveness of your training.
The five-zone training model was popularized by Dr. Andrew Coggan and Hunter Allen for cycling, although it is applicable to running and swimming too, which is driven off your Functional Threshold Power, which is the highest power output an athlete can maintain for one hour without fatigue.
| Zone | Feel | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1: Active Recovery (Endurance) | Easy |
This is the lowest intensity zone, used for recovery and restorative workouts. The effort level is very low and can be maintained for long periods. The purpose is to improve blood flow and recovery. |
|
Zone 2: Aerobic (Endurance) |
Steady |
This zone focuses on building the aerobic base and improving endurance. It is a moderate intensity zone, where an athlete can maintain a conversation but feels somewhat challenged. Workouts in this zone typically last between 2-5 hours. |
|
Zone 3: Tempo (Sup Threshold) |
Moderate |
This zone is characterized by a moderate to high intensity level, where an athlete can no longer maintain a conversation. Intensity zones such as sweet spot training and up to the point of the maximal lactate steady state (MLSS) fall into this zone. Workouts in this zone typically last between 30-60 minutes. |
| Zone 4: Supra threshold (V02 Max) | Hard |
This zone is characterized by high intensity, and is used to improve VO2 max, or the maximum amount of oxygen an athlete can use during exercise. Lactate accumulates faster than it can be utilized by the body. Workouts in this zone typically last between 4-20 minutes. |
|
Zone 5: Anaerobic (Power) |
Very Hard |
This zone is characterized by maximum effort, where an athlete can only sustain the intensity for seconds to a few minutes at a time. Workouts in this zone are used to improve power and speed, and typically last between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. |
These 5 zones are applicable to swimming, biking and running training however discipline specific tests such as the ones devised by Training Peaks™ below could be used to generate your individual training zones. All of these are anchored off your Threshold values for each discipline.
You can perform a variety of lab or field tests to determine your threshold values to derive your training zones. Since most people don’t have access to a lab I like the simplicity of the Training Peaks™ testing methods
There isn’t a perfect and universally agreed “optimal” way of segmenting your training effort into zones/intensities. They are used as guide to help ensure that you are reaping the most out of the combination of your training intensity distribution, volume of training and recovery.
Again, there is no definitive right or wrong here on what is the best tool to use. It depends on the preferences of coach, athlete and the tools available. I personally like to use power for the bike, heart rate for running and speed for swimming but we can adjust for each athlete.
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I like to use TrainingPeaks™ platform to create training plans, capture training data and gain valuable insight for my athletes. It’s a well established training platform that has widespread usage amongst pros and amateurs for good reason. I personally have been using TrainingPeaks™ for 20 years.
There is a lot of debate on how many training zones to use and what method is most appropriate to determine which zone you are in but there is no perfect approach that works for everyone. It largely depends on the coaches and athletes needs as well as the tools they have at their disposal.
My preference is to use a 5 zone model as this appears to be a good compromise for most athletes of simplicity with enough precision to ensure you are training at the appropriate intensity and maximizing the effectiveness of your training.
The five-zone training model was popularized by Dr. Andrew Coggan and Hunter Allen for cycling, although it is applicable to running and swimming too, which is driven off your Functional Threshold Power, which is the highest power output an athlete can maintain for one hour without fatigue.
| Zone | Feel | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1: Active Recovery (Endurance) | Easy |
This is the lowest intensity zone, used for recovery and restorative workouts. The effort level is very low and can be maintained for long periods. The purpose is to improve blood flow and recovery. |
|
Zone 2: Aerobic (Endurance) |
Steady | This zone focuses on building the aerobic base and improving endurance. It is a moderate intensity zone, where an athlete can maintain a conversation but feels somewhat challenged. Workouts in this zone typically last between 2-5 hours. |
|
Zone 3: Tempo (Sup Threshold) |
Moderate |
This zone is characterized by a moderate to high intensity level, where an athlete can no longer maintain a conversation. Intensity zones such as sweet spot training and up to the point of the maximal lactate steady state (MLSS) fall into this zone. Workouts in this zone typically last between 30-60 minutes. |
| Zone 4: Supra threshold (V02 Max) | Hard | This zone is characterized by high intensity, and is used to improve VO2 max, or the maximum amount of oxygen an athlete can use during exercise. Lactate accumulates faster than it can be utilized by the body. Workouts in this zone typically last between 4-20 minutes. |
|
Zone 5: Anaerobic (Power) |
Very Hard |
This zone is characterized by maximum effort, where an athlete can only sustain the intensity for seconds to a few minutes at a time. Workouts in this zone are used to improve power and speed, and typically last between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. |
These 5 zones are applicable to swimming, biking and running training however discipline specific tests such as the ones devised by Training Peaks™ below could be used to generate your individual training zones. All of these are anchored off your Threshold values for each discipline.
You can perform a variety of lab or field tests to determine your threshold values to derive your training zones. Since most people don’t have access to a lab I like the simplicity of the Training Peaks™ testing methods
|
Biking |
Functional Threshold Pace |
You can estimate FTP with your best recent 20-minute power value (either from a dedicated 20-minute test or a sufficiently hard 20-minute effort from a race or workout). Multiply that value by 90% to get your FTP.
|
|
Heart Rate Threshold |
Your threshold heart rate will the average heart rate from a recent intense race or very hard interval from a training ride, where you spent 45-60 minutes in duration at an all-out effort |
|
|
Running |
Functional Threshold Pace |
Your Functional Threshold Pace will be the average pace from a recent race or very hard training run of 45-60 minutes in duration. |
Heart Rate Threshold |
Your threshold heart rate will be the average heart rate from a recent race or very hard training run of 45-60 minutes in duration. |
|
| Swimming | Functional Threshold Pace |
Swim for 30 or 60 minutes as fast as you can, then record how far you went. For example, if you swam for 30 minutes and cover 1000 meters, then you can use the value of 33.3 m/min. as your FTP Since the actual FTP is closer to the one hour effort, it might be more advisable to perform a 60-minute test or to take the value obtained for 30 minutes, multiply by two and subtract 2.5 percent (as most trained swimmers swim roughly 2.5 percent slower in a 60-minute maximal effort than in a 30-minute maximal effort). So again, if you cover 1000 m in 30 minutes, your GO minute FTP would be 1950 m/hr or 32.5m/min. This may seem like a minor difference, but due to the resistive aspect of swimming, small differences can have a substantial impact. |
Critical Swim Speed |
Your Critical Swim Speed (CSS) is the predicted pace you could currently swim a 1500 time trial. The 400 and 200 times within your test are used to calculate your CSS.
To calculate CSS the time taken for 200 IS subtracted from the time taken to complete the 400 and the resultant time divided by two to get your min per 100 pace. CSS is reliant upon the relationship between the two parts of the test as well as the speed itself. |
Again, there is no definitive right or wrong here on what is the best tool to use. It depends on the preferences of coach, athlete and the tools available. I personally like to use power for the bike, heart rate for running and speed for swimming but we can adjust for each athlete.
